Detained in a room at the headquarters of the 1st Army Division, in Vila Militar, in Rio, the reserve general has been watched 24 hours a day by two Army Police soldiers.
Braga Netto does not have freedom of movement at HQ. He receives four meals a day in his own accommodation, which was adapted to accommodate him and has a separate bathroom, and can only leave the place once a day, to sunbathe.
By court order, you can only receive visits from your lawyers. On Wednesday (18), he was at your location.
The room has windows – without bars – and is equipped with air conditioning and TV. The food is the same as that served at the ranch for the soldiers who work in that unit.
Braga Netto was transferred to HQ last Saturday (14), after being .
Requested by the Federal Police, the preventive detention was authorized by the minister of the Federal Supreme Court, after a favorable opinion from the Attorney General’s Office. According to the PF, the general had an active participation in the plan to prevent, through a coup, the president’s inauguration and even tried to obstruct justice by trying to hinder the investigations.
Upon arriving at the unit in Vila Militar, Braga Netto underwent a medical examination and participated in a custody hearing via videoconference conducted by an assistant judge from Moraes.
Much of the Army leadership was at a graduation ceremony at the Naval Academy, in Rio, when the arrest occurred – including Commander Tomás Paiva. General Kleber Nunes de Vasconcellos, head of the Eastern Military Command, to which the 1st Army Division is subordinate, left the Naval Academy and went to Vila Militar.
At HQ, Vasconcellos had a formal conversation lasting around half an hour with Braga Netto, in which he communicated that his colleague’s safety would be the responsibility of the Military Command he led and that he would strictly comply with the Court’s determinations regarding the arrest.
Although Braga Netto’s reputation in the Army High Command is damaged, to say the least, the dialogue with Vasconcellos (a four-star general, the highest rank in his career) was a way of alleviating the discomfort due to the fact that the chief of the 1st Army Division, Eduardo Tavares Martins, to be a division general (three stars), one grade below that of the officer in his custody — just like the head of the CML (Eastern Military Command), Braga Netto is a four-star general stars.
The headquarters of the 1st Army Division (DE) of the CML where Braga Netto is detained has great historical symbolism. It was from this building that, in 1944, the FEB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force) fighters who fought in . The commander of the FEB was the then general Mascarenhas de Morais (later promoted to marshal), after whom the 1st DE was named.
The Military Village is the largest garrison in the country and houses important units such as the EsAO (Officer Improvement School, which trains captains) and the Parachute Brigade. He went through both and lived in both Vila Militar and Bento Ribeiro, a neighboring neighborhood. The 1st DE HQ is almost next door – a five-minute walk – from the Rosa da Fonseca Municipal School, where the former president votes.
The 1st DE was once commanded by General Luiz Eduardo Ramos (from 2014 to 2016), who would later be a minister in the Bolsonaro government. Its last commander was General Kleber Vasconcellos, current head of the CML. Braga Netto himself has already occupied the position currently held by Vasconcellos, having .
